Styria is the Austrian province with the biggest deposits of raw materials.
Iron ore with a content of 32 % iron and 2% manganese has been extracted on
the Erzberg mountain in Eisenerz already since the Middle Ages. Open-cast
mining produces 3 million tons of ore a year. Smelting is done in Donawitz
near Leoben.
Between Judenburg and Mürzzuschlag at the Mur-Mürz furrow, an important east-
west traffic line, we find the most important industries of Upper Styria with
iron and steel works. In this century, the mining of magnetite (in Oberdorf an
der Laming, Veitsch, Trieben, Breitenau) has gained worldwide importance.
The brown coal mine Voitsberg-Köflach supplies most of all the big thermal
power stations.
The traditional salt mining in Aussee extracts almost a third of the Austrian
salt.
A considerable part of the Austrian glass production comes from western Styria.
Almost 20 % of the Styrian population works in agriculture and forestry.
Stock farming represents the biggest part, especially in the Ennstal-Gröbming-
Irdning region and the Upper Murtal valley. In Styria almost 986,000 hectares
are covered with woods (60% of its territory). Also 75% of Austrian fruit
growing is located in Styria. Wine growing becomes more and more important in
southern and western Styria, even though it represents only 5% of the total
Austrian wine growing area.
An upcoming sector is tourism, for example in the Styrian part of the
Salzkammergut, the Dachstein/Tauern and Mariazeller region, the Weizer
holiday region and the thermal bath region in the southeast. Winter tourism
became very important in the Salzkammergut, the area surrounding Schladming
and Murau.
